Quick Hits on the 4th

• I was starting to worry that I was becoming a prude, 'cause I was getting annoyed with the folks around my 'hood shooting off extremely loud (but largely invisible) fireworks till the wee hours of the morning and for about the past week. But I thought about it yesterday, and no, I'm not a prude. On the contrary, I love fireworks. I sat at Hollywood Beach last night w/my wife and friends and thoroughly enjoyed the show the city put on. What annoys me about the cats in my neighborhood shooting off the fireworks is none of these dudes are thinking about Independence Day or Freedom or any of that stuff. I'm not stupid. As with Christmas and the "reason for the season" none of us - unless we're running for office - spend all day on July 4th meditating about 1776, and the rockets red glare, and Uncle Sam needing us, etc. But these guys who get drunk and shoot their popper off so they sound right outside your window? They're just knuckleheads taking advantage of an excuse to make noise.
• Gotta give it to the men and women on the space shuttle. After the disasters NASA has had in recent years, I'd have been scared to death to fly in one of those things. Weren't they built in the '60s? I know they've made upgrades, but even airlines are required to add new birds to their fleets every so often. Besides, if just upgrades are OK, how come my buddy's 1964 Corvair with the new/modern stereo and the new/modern upholstery, and the new/modern tires and rims, is sitting in his driveway with a tarp over it? I'll tell you why, 'cause that old bucket - while it may be nice to look at - is what they call in the hood a hardcore hoopty! But God bless the astronauts. I hope they make it back OK.
• So I wrote yesterday about the U.S. flag meaning more to me as I get a little older and I briefly touched on the thought that there are different ways of respecting the flag, but sometimes efforts to respect go awry. Case in point, we're sitting on the beach last night waiting for the fireworks show to start, and we see a couple of guys up ahead wearing what look to be colorful capes. My eyes are terrible, but I'm too scared to try contacts and too busy and too vain to get my eyeglass prescription updated. So it took my wife pointing out that those capes were actually American flags. I squinted to get a better look, and sure enough both shirtless, too-short shorts wearing dudes had flags tied around their necks as they sat in the sand with the flags dragging the ground behind them. Not cool. If you can't keep the thing out of the dirt, take it off and hang it on a pole or the wall like everyone else.
• Finally, speaking of the beach, what is it about festive atmospheres that bring out the triflin' in people? It's as if the full moon comes out during public holiday celebrations, and an invisible signal goes off and compels people to "act a fool," as my Grandma Rosa would say. As we strolled the Broadwalk (if you don't live in South Florida, you wouldn't know this, but "Broadwalk" isn't a misspelling; apparently that's just what the city of Hollywood, FL calls it's beach boardwalk.) looking for a good spot in the sand to settle in, a group of teenage boys - I'd say all were ages 15 to 17 - walked through the crowd loudly calling out "Where are all the fine b--ches at?" They were yelling like they were the town criers, and really proud of themselves. The worst part is there were teenage girls responding to the shout outs like they were being given prizes. Also, in about five minutes time I saw three incidents of mean-mugging (hard, menacing stares) between strangers that led to near fist fights that had to be broken up. People are nuts.